The approval rating of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff fell to a new low and support for her impeachment grew amid economic recession and a widening corruption scandal at state-owned Petrobras, according a poll released on Tuesday.
The survey, conducted by polling agency MDA, revealed that her government's approval rating has fallen from 11 percent in March to 7.7 percent in July - the lowest rating of any president since early 1990s - reported Reuters. The number of respondents who support Rousseff's impeachment over Petrobras corruption scandal rose to about 63 percent in July from nearly 60 percent in March.
Rousseff's administration has a rejection rating of 70.9 percent, according to the poll. On personal performance, only 15.3 percent Brazilian respondents approved of Rousseff while 79.9 percent rated her negatively, according to EM Brazil.
Rousseff said she was "not guilty" in the multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at the state-owned energy giant Petrobras and vowed to continue in office. "I'm not going to fall. I won't. I won't. That would be too wimpy. This is a political fight," she had said in an interview with the the Folha de São Paulo newspaper last week, according to The Guardian.
Opposition parties, however, trying to exploit the Petrobras corruption scandal and are said to be behind the legal actions in Brazil's highest electoral court that could threaten to unseat her before the completion of her term in 2018, according to the Buenos Aires Herald.
The survey also revealed that the highest rates of distrust were aimed at the political institutions, according to EFE. Only two percent of respondents said they trusted the government, while a mere 1.6 percent said they trusted Congress.
